Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 104

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

various engagements en route. Thence they marched north through the Carolinas, and were at Averysboro, Rivers' Bridges, the capture of Columbia, S. C., and at Goldsboro and Benton- ville. After the surrender of the Confederates they were ordered to Washington, where they participated in the grand review and were mus- tered out of service, later were honorably dis- charged at Springfield, Captain Hardy holding the rank of sergeant. While he took part in over thirty engagements and was hit at Corinth, Ben- tonville and Resaca, no wound was in the least serious; however, he had been affected by the hardships of war and for a long time after re- turning home was in poor health, although he endeavored to manage his farm near Odell, Ill. In 1872 he removed to Clinton, Iowa, and for five years was engaged in a sash and blind busi- ness. Returning to Livingston county, Ill., in 1877, he resumed farming. From there, in 1880, he moved to Kansas and took up a homestead near Norton, at the same time carried on con- tracting and building. On his arrival in Santa Barbara, in August, 1883, he turned his atten- tion to carpentering, but since 1887 has been a contractor and builder, and among other con- tracts has built the Hopkins block and the resi- dences of Mr. Whitney and E. R. Spaulding.

March 20, 1870, in Livingston county, Ill., Cap- tain Hardy married Miss Zoraida G. Bolt, who was born in Colon, St. Joseph county, Mich., and was one of five children, three now living. The Bolt family is of Holland-Dutch descent and is related to the Putnams and the Van Rensselaers. Her grandfather, Thaddeus Bolt, married a de- scendant of Gen. Israel Putnam. Her father, Cornelius Bolt, a native of Schenectady, N. Y., moved to Colon, Mich., in 1845, and later set- tled in Livingston county, Ill. His wife was Elsie Ann, daughter of Charles Doughty, both natives of New York and descendants of a Scotch family that settled in Connecticut at an early day. Charles Doughty died in Michigan and his daughter, Mrs. Bolt, is now living at Mendon, that state, and is eighty-two years of age. After completing her education in Colon Seminary Mrs. Hardy taught school, first in Michigan, later in Illinois. Since coming to Santa Barbara she has been an active member of the Women's Relief Corps. To her marriage have been born four children, namely: Clara Frances, Mrs. Griffith, of Santa Barbara ; Ethel C., a student in Berkeley College; Albert C., a graduate of Santa Barbara Business College ; and Blanche B.

During his residence in Illinois Captain Hardy was made a Mason in the blue lodge of Freedom, Ill. At this writing he is past commander of Starr King Post No. 52, and formerly he served as an aide on the department staff. Politically he is a Republican and in religion holds membership in the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, to whose official board he belongs. He is a member

of the Chamber of Commerce and interested in other movements for the development of Santa Barbara's trade facilities. Ever since his par- ticipation in the Civil war he has maintained an interest in military affairs and has kept well posted in military tactics. At a mass meeting held when the Spanish-American war was declared, he was appointed to organize and drill four com- panies of home guards, and this he proceeded to do, the result being a fine brigade of well-trained militia. He also organized and commanded the Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Brigades, the former of which had a reputation as the banner company of its kind in the United States.

THEODORE A. KELSEY. There are few of the residents of the Santa Clara valley whose identification with its interests antedates the ar- rival of Mr. Kelsey, a pioneer of 1869. For ten years before that he had been a resident of Cali- fornia, but his success and prosperity may be said to date from his arrival in the county of Ventura, with whose history he has been asso- ciated since his early manhood. Born in Rock- away, Morris county, N. J., he accompanied his parents to California in 1859 and settled in Oak- land. Acquiring a knowledge of the harness- maker's trade, he followed that occupation in San Francisco for seven years. From there he came to the Santa Clara valley, where he oper- ated rented land at first, saving his earnings in order that he might invest in property for him- self.

For several years after 1876 Mr. Kelsey owned and operated the Jack Hill ranch near Montalvo, where he was associated with his brother, J. B. Kelsey, in the raising of hogs. In 1887 he rented Captain Blackburn's ranch and for eight years engaged in raising beans there. His next purchase comprised sixty-two acres, formerly known as the Cline farm, and situated near West Saticoy. On this place he has since made his home. All of the land is under cultivation, and is devoted to the raising of walnuts, apricots and lima beans. The latter he raises more espe- cially for the seed, which he sells to eastern seed houses. During 1900 he shipped seventy-five tons of hand-picked seed beans, which shows the large scale upon which the business is con- ducted. At the World's Fair in 1893 he was awarded a premium on the Lazy Wife bean, a variety that is particularly fine.

The subject of irrigation receives considerable attention from Mr. Kelsey, who realizes its im- portance in the development of California. To furnish water for one hundred acres, he has wells that are sixty feet and three hundred feet deep, respectively. He is a member of the Walnut Growers' Association at Saticoy, a stockholder in the People's Lumber Company at Ventura, and a director of the Saticoy Co-operative store. Progressive and enterprising, he is eager to

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carry out plans for the upbuilding of the valley, and has done much to benefit his locality. For nine years he was a trustee of the Saticoy school district, during which time he was active in pro- moting the standard of education and introduc- ing necded improvements. While he is not a partisan, he is nevertheless a worker in the Re- publican party and a thorough sympathizer with its principles. Being a natural farmer and prac- tical fruit man, he has made a special study of the fruit industry, and his land forms one of the finest fruit ranches near Saticoy. However, his greatest delight. is not in his ranch or his town, but in his home and family, and his great- est ambition is to promote the welfare of his children. One of his daughters, Mabel E., is a graduate of the California State University at Berkeley; Adaline is in the school for trained nurses at San Francisco; Rita F. is making a special study of music, for which she possesses talent: Inez is attending the Ventura high school. The eldest son, Earle, who possesses ability in the mechanical arts, is being given the advantage of a course in that line at the State University.

C. E. HOAR. The family represented by Mr. Hoar of Ventura county is one of the most illus- trious in New England, with the history of which its members have been identified since the colonial period. During the Revolutionary war Capt. Samuel Hoar was a gallant officer in the patriot army, and after the close of the conflict he was for many years a member of the Massachusetts legislature. His son, Samuel, Jr., was born in Lincoln, Mass., May 18, 1788, and was graduated from Harvard College in 1802, after which he studied law and in 1805 was admitted to the bar. Establishing himself in practice at Concord, he was for forty years one of the most distinguished attorneys of the Bay state. In 1825 and 1833 he was elected to the state senate, and from 1835 to 1837 he served in the United States congress. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard College. His death occurred in Con- cord, November 2, 1856.

By the marriage of Samuel Hoar, Jr., to a daughter of Roger Sherman, two sons were born, both of whom attained national reputations. One of these, Ebenezer R., was the father of C. E. Hoar, while the other, George Frisbie, is known throughout the United States as the senator from Massachusetts and as one of our nation's lead- ing men. Ebenezer R. Hoar was born in Con- cord February 21, 1816, and was graduated from Harvard College in 1835. Five years later he was admitted to the bar, and entered upon a dis- tinguished career at the bar and on the bench. From 1849 to 1855 he served as judge of the court of common pleas; from 1859 to 1869 he was a judge of the state supreme court. In March, 1869, under the administration of Ulysses

S. Grant, he was chosen attorney-general of the United States, but resigned from the cabinet in July, 1870. In 1871 he was a member of the joint high commission which framed the treaty of Washington with Great Britain. He accepted a seat in the United States congress December 1. 1873, and remained in that body until March 3, 1875, when he resumed his private practice. Politically he was a firm believer in Republican principles, and was himself one of the leaders in the establishment of the party's platform.

The brilliant career of Ebenezer R. Hoar has been duplicated in that of his brother, George F. Hoar, who was born at Concord August 29, 1826, graduated from Harvard in 1846, and be- gan the practice of law at Worcester, Mass. In 1856 he was elected to the Massachusetts legis- lature and the next year became a state senator. His long and successful connection with national statesmanship began March 4, 1869, when he took his seat in congress. He remained in that body until March 3, 1877, when he retired. Two days later he entered the United States senate. His subsequent history is known to all. Fre- quently he has been a delegate to national Re- publican conventions. From 1874 to 1880 he was overseer of Harvard College; in 1880 he was regent of the Smithsonian Institute. Other offices held by him have been those of president of the American Antiquarian Society and trustec of the Peabody Museum of Archeology. Like his father, he is a member of the Massachusetts His- torical Society. The degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon him by William and Mary, Am- herst, Yale and Harvard Colleges.

In Concord, Mass., with the history of which his forefathers were so closely associated, C. E. Hoar was born and reared. Following the ex- ample of his father and grandfather, he became a student in Harvard, from which he was gradu- ated. In 1875 he came to California, and during the first thirteen years of his residence in this state he engaged in the sheep-raising business and rented practically one-half of the entire val- ley in which his ranch was located, Capt. A. W. Brown renting the other half for a similar period. Eventually Mr. Hoar purchased seven hundred acres near Simi, Ventura county, and this he has turned to the profitable raising of grain and al- falfa, having one hundred acres in the latter. At present his specialty in stock is the raising of hogs. The ranch is fitted out with approved modern appliances and labor-saving devices. Ir- rigation is facilitated by artesian wells, one of which is ninety feet deep. Success has made of Mr. Hoar an advocate of the manifold advantages to be found in this part of the state, and he is one of the most enterprising of the easterners who have here found a pleasant home and con- genial occupation. He cast his first presidential vote for James A. Garfield and has ever since affiliated with the Republican party.

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MRS. H. G. HELMER. To trace the success of Mrs. Helmer in her chosen occupation of flori- culture is to go back to the fundamental principles of her life, which are perseverance, many-sided capabilities, and an ardent love of nature in all her moods and an understanding of her many peculiarities. No smallest shoot in the large and complete greenhouses but seems to have a future of verdure, flower or fruit, and because of this prophecy it receives the most careful ministra- tions, and is gently induced to fulfil expecta- tions. From an insignificant and experimental beginning Mrs. Helmer has developed by far the largest trade in the city, and no one questions her right to be designated one of the most artistic decorators in a state where floral embellishment seems as second nature. From earliest youth this successful florist evinced a love for children, flowers and sunshine, three of the happiest com- binations, and the most harmonious of character developers. She was born in the city of Olden- burg, Germany, her maiden name having been Helena G. Miners. Her father, Otto Miners, was one of the principal men of the little German town, which was also his birthplace, and there in his mature years he became a large wholesale manufacturer and merchant. To him belonged the distinction of selling the first sewing machine in the empire, which was the make of Wheeler & Wilson. He came from a very old family of that section of Germany, and his death in his native town ended a career marked by large achievements and many public-spirited undertak- ings. His helpmate through life was formerly Helena Linderman, who was born and died in Oldenburg.

There was but one child in the family, and Miss Miners received every advantage which her parents' circumstances permitted. She was edu- cated in the schools of Oldenburg and as an aid to future independence learned to be a kinder- garten teacher under some of the best masters in the country where this admirable system of early instruction originated. In 1873 she immi- grated to the United States, and after a short sojourn in New York City came to San Fran- cisco and entered the German kindergarten of that city, being one of the first teachers in this part of the country. At first assistant principal, she was later promoted to the principalship, which position she held until her resignation in 1875.

June 6, 1875, Miss Miners married George Helmer, a native of Saxe-Weimer, Germany, and a barber by occupation. Mr. Helmer came to New York City from his native land and there followed his trade, removing later to San Fran- cisco, and in 1875 locating in Santa Barbara, where he has one of the finest and most popular shops in the city. He is a master in his line, and possesses those requirements which are insepa- rably associated with success in this most neces- sary of callings.

At first Mrs. Helmer had a small private green- house, but about twelve years ago she decided to branchout and make a regular business of raising plants andflowers, and now has very large houses for propagating plants. The cut flower gardens are in the adjoining block to the Arlington, and there is a flower stand in the hotel. When Presi- dent Mckinley visited Santa Barbara, Mrs. Helmer decorated the dining room, which was by all pronounced a model of artistic skill, roses galore and of many varieties being used, three thousand five hundred in all. The president's table was decorated with La France roses. Es- pecially worthy of mention are the unique and beautiful decorations thought out by Mrs. Hel- mer for wedding parties, and equally appropriate her funeral embellishments. Every department of her trade is under her own personal supervi- sion, and she has taken the premiums for artistic work at the Santa Ana floral carnivals, and on many otlier occasions where there was pro- nounced competition and an opportunity for more than ordinary decorative knowledge. Mrs. Helmer is a member of the Santa Barbara Hor- ticultural Association.

To Mr. and Mrs. Helmer have been born four children: Alexander, who assists his mother with her work; Otto, who is a foreman in a min- ing camp in British Columbia; Leta and Adellea, who are at home. Mr. Helmer is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The family are members of the Lutheran Church.

FORDYCE GRINNELL, M. D. At the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes the French-Huguenot family of Grinnell joined in the Protestant dispersion and became resi- dents of England, whence three brothers crossed the ocean to America, settling in Massachusetts. Sylvester Grinnell, a native of the state of Ver- mont, and a soldier in the war of 1812, was the first of the name to embrace the doctrines of the Friends' Church, and his son, Rev. Jeremiah A. Grinnell, also of Vermont birth, became a minister in that society. The beautiful doctrines of that sect were exemplified by his life and teachings, and he did much to broaden the in- fluence of the church. From Morrow county, Ohio, in 1850, he moved to Cedar county, Iowa, settling in Springdale and buying a tract of new land. Many other towns afterward received the encouragement of his presence as a minister of the gospel. Both in the north and the south he founded new churches and strengthened es- tablished congregations. Even after coming to California in his old age he organized several new congregations. For more than fifty years he continued in ministerial work and when very old passed away in Pasadena. In his labors as a preacher he had the faithful and devoted as- sistance of his wife, who was a member of an old Quaker family of Vermont, where she was

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born. In childhood she went to Morrow county, Ohio, with her father, Thomas Taber. Her death occurred in Tennessee. The family of Jeremiah A. and Martha (Taber) Grinnell con- sisted of four sons and four daughters, of whom two sons and two daughters are living, namely: Edwin, of Des Moines, Iowa; Fordyce, of Pas- adena, Cal .; Mrs. Rosa G. Hastings, of Mary- ville, Tenn .; and Mrs. Evelyn Cleaver, of Indi- ana. After the death of Mrs. Martha Grinnell, Rev. J. A. Grinnell married Jane M. Kille, in Damascus, Ohio. She is still living and makes Pasadena her home.

At Mount Gilead, Morrow county, Ohio, For- dyce Grinnell was born April 23, 1844. He stud- ied classics in the Farmers' Institute near La- fayette, Ind., and during the war was for two years associated with the Freedmen's Bureau, teaching the colored people in Missouri. Later he engaged in educational work in Tennessee and while teaching also gained his rudimentary knowledge of medicine. In 1873 he was grad- uated from Miami Medical College of Cincin- nati, Ohio, after which he acted as physician and surgeon to the Wichita Indian agency in the Indian Territory, practicing for five years near Fort Sill. Meantime, October 21, 1874, in Roch- ester, N. H., he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Pratt, and while they were liv- ing near Fort Sill their first child, Joseph, was born. In 1878 the family removed to Tennessee, where Dr. Grinnell practiced at Maryville for two and one-half years. In 1881 he was ap- pointed government physician and surgeon at Red Cloud Agency (now the Pine Ridge Agency), where he remained two years. An- other son, Fordyce, Jr., was born at this agency, while the only daughter, Elizabeth, was born subsequently when the family were for two years stationed at the Rose Bud Agency.

During the years of his service as govern- ment physician Dr. Grinnell always treated the Indians with consideration and thoughtful kind- ness. As a result he won their confidence. At no time did he ever wear arms although often the red men were on the war path, but he knew himself and family to be safe with them. When an Indian war was impending, the other white families at the agency were moved away in gov- ernment wagons, but his family remained among the Sioux and received from them the most courteous treatment. On leaving the govern- ment service, in 1885, he came to California and purchased property at Pasadena. At the solici- tation of his old friend, Colonel Pratt, he ac- cepted an appointment as physician in the hos- pital connected with the Indian training school at Carlisle, Pa., but a year later returned to Pasadena, where he has since conducted a gen- eral practice in medicine and surgery. He owns and has improved three and one-half acres on Marengo avenue, also has property in other

parts of the city, and has improved various orange groves. As an organizer and director he was connected with the Pickering Land and Water Company, which laid out and started the town of Whittier. The name of Whittier was suggested by Mrs. Grinnell on the occasion of her first visit to the town site and the sugges- tion was at once adopted by the company. At one time he was president of the Pasadena Med- ical Society, in whose organization he assisted. For years he was a director of the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he was also hon- ored as the president. In religion he is a Pres- byterian, and in politics a believer in Republican principles.

Sylvester Grinnell, brother of Fordyce, grad- uated at Oberlin, Ohio, and preached as a Con- gregational minister for many years in Wis- consin.

Mrs. Grinnell is of Puritan lineage. Her great- grandfather, Simeon Pratt, settled in Roxbury during Revolutionary days, and the house in which he lived still stands. He was a charter member of the Washington Lodge of Masons, which he served as warden. His son, Nathan, a merchant of Roxbury, was the father of Rev. Joseph H. Pratt, who became a minister in the Society of Friends, and who married Martha E. Hanson, daughter of Robert Hanson. The latter represented the second generation in de- scent from one of three brothers emigrating from England. A native of North Carolina, Robert Hanson started northward for New England and settled at Thorndike, Me., entering three hundred and twenty acres of land there and becoming a farmer of means and influence. There were twelve children in his family, among them being Martha E., who was born in Maine and now, at eighty-five years of age, makes her home in Indianapolis, Ind. By her marriage to Rev. J. H. Pratt, one son and three daughters were born, namely: Charles Eadward, who died in Boston; Mrs. Jennie Woollard, of Ames- bury, Mass .; Mrs. Elizabeth Pratt, of Pasadena, Cal .; and Mrs. Hannah Jessup, of Indianapolis, Ind. The son, Charles Eadward Pratt, is worthy of more extended mention than the limits of this article permit. Known throughout New Eng- land as lawyer and litterateur, he was born at Vassalborough, Me., in 1845, and in 1870 was graduated from Haverford (Pa.) College. After having completed his law studies with Messrs. Jones and Otis (former associates of Governor Andrew), he was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1871, and to the bar of the United States in July, 1872. For a time general practice en- gaged his attention, but soon he made a spe- cialty of patent law. In May, 1881, he became counsel for Pope Manufacturing Company, a position which he held until shortly before his death. Elected from the twenty-first ward to the city council of Boston, in 1881 and 1882 he

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was president of that body, and for a time he was a .trustee of the Boston Public Library. It is a noteworthy fact that he was the first Quaker to hold any office in Boston; he was also the first of that society to speak on Boston common since the execution of Mary Dyer, his address being delivered before Post No. 113, G. A. R., on Decoration day of 1882. Notwithstanding his active professional career, he kept in touch with public affairs of moment and with the on- ward march of literature representing the mod- ern phases of thought. At the time that bicy- cles were first introduced he became a champion of the wheel, was one of the earliest riders, pro- jected the League of American Wheelmen, and was its first president. He also founded "The Bicycling World," and acted as editor of "Out- ing." On all questions connected with the priv- ileges and interests of bicycling he was regarded as a practical authority. At the time of his death lie was engaged in a translation of Les Carbole's "Historie de la Nouvelle France."

The early childhood of Mrs. Grinnell was passed at the family home, on the banks of the Penobscot river, about sixty miles north of Ban- gor. Living close to nature, she early gained a love for all her moods, whether of summer sun or winter snow, and, like all who have a teacher so profound, she is richly endowed with the highest ideals of moral obligations. During those same days she began to understand the situation of the homeless Indians, whose fast- thinning ranks were drifting slowly toward the west, and the injustice done them awakened within her a deep pity for their pathetic and hopeless condition. Always fond of writing, since coming to California she has devoted con- siderable attention to literature, and is now, with her older son, on the staff of "Out West" (formerly "Land of Sunshine"). She is the au- thor of the following works: "How John and I Brought Up the Child," published by the Sun- day-School Union of Philadelphia; "John and I and the Church," published by Fleming H. Re- vell, of Chicago; "For the Sake of a Name," by David C. Cook, of Chicago; "Our Feathered Friends" (which she wrote in collaboration with her son Joseph), published by D. C. Heatlı & Co., of Boston, and now in use in the public schools of the United States as a supplementary reader; and "Birds of Song and Story," by her- self and son, Joseph, written in the interests of the Audubon Society, and published by A. W. Mumford, of Chicago. In addition, she edited "Gold Hunting in Alaska," written by her older son and published by David C. Cook. The son, who is an instructor in the Leland Stanford Summer School, makes a specialty of ornithol- ogy and biology, and is a fellow in the American Ornithological Union. In the interests of this science he has made two trips to Alaska, thus securing the finest collection yet obtained of

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Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 104

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 1366

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366